Reply To: Siyum Hashas on eBay controversy….

Before I posted here I read the entire listing on eBay and because it was long I only referred to it in my first post.

Having read the whole thing it’s not so hard to see their thinking and therefore why eBay is a more natural fit.

But firstly, aside from what they actually posted, I would not be at all surprised if the son who is finishing Shas doesn’t want to announce it to the whole world and there is no anonymity on GoFundMe.

Secondly, having read the listing in detail, if we take the father at his word in his Update, as much as this was not obvious to the commenters who wrote before knowing the full story, as much as it is very common to sell the zchus of learning – it’s done the whole time by every Yeshiva and Kollel who sell sponsorships le’iluy neshomo etc., as he explained they did not want to sell Torah Study itself to avoid commercializing – and so they decided to focus more on selling the zchus of the celebration of the Siyum and include the zchus of the learning on the side. Although they could have done that on GoFundMe too, it’s also clear from the original auction listing that it’s more personal when it’s an exclusive one-to-one match, one sponsor to one mesayem and especially so when they both celebrate together – which would not work at all on GoFundMe which is crowd-funding.

It seems to me that what they are offering is a unique niche, but I am not sure whether they’ll find any takers. The father, for his part wrote that he believes that someone, somewhere will be interested and giving detailed suggestions in the listing he suggested how anyone can take no more than a few minutes to get a share in the mitzva at no cost by helping to spread the word.